Trilokpuri: Fight at chowki of trouble wasn’t communal

“There were five mischievous boys loitering around the Mata ki Chowki. Two of them were Muslim. They are friends and neighbours. Like most evenings, they were drinking and playing. This is when they had a fight,’’ Hari Singh Bisht who lives right behind the Sri Murugan temple said. “The fight escalated and they began hurling stones. They sent WhatsApp messages to friends and a mob gathered… There has never been a Hindu-Muslim riot here. I feel very sad that a fight between drunk boys spiralled into this.”

Bisht’s neighbour Mohammad Shakeel joined him, “We didn’t fight because we know the reality. Though the Mata ki Chowki was put up for the first time in this compound, it was done with mutual consent. See how close the mosque and the temple are. Both communities take care of this little park and use it for religious gatherings,’’ he said.

Sonu Rao, who stays in the same neighbourhood and makes a living working as a cook, migrated from Chennai 41 years ago and settled here. “It’s a shame. What happened here was a fight between a group of boys. They are friends and I am sure they will be together again once tension recedes. Religion had nothing to do with their fight,” he said.

Ishrat Jehan, who lives with her family next to the temple, said of Rao, “He treats me like an elder sister.’’ She is more worried about the “bad name” that the riots have given the neighbourhood. “Who will want to marry their daughters here now,’’ she asks.

On the other side of the park, ahead of the compound with the Mata ki Chowki, runs a row of Muslim homes. Mohammad Abrar, who has a small grocery shop, said: “Sharab ki wajah se jhagda hua (drinking led to the fight)… Dharmik nahin tha (religion wasn’t the reason).”
Standing outside his shop, mechanic Akbar Ali said, “I have been living here since 1976. This neighbourhood has a 50-50 Hindu-Muslim population. There has never been a fight. The bricks in front of the Mata ki Chowki were meant for the mosque. We didn’t have such divisions here. But these mischievous boys lit a fire… We are daily wagers. If we don’t work, what will we feed our families. All this was unnecessary.”

Imam Mohamamd Shameem of Masjid Shan-e-Ilahi, metres away from the Mata ki Chowki, said he was leading the evening prayers when there was a commotion outside.

“Stones came right inside. There were around 70 people in the mosque when this happened. We finished the namaz in a hurry but stayed inside lest we get injured. We had no idea what was happening outside.”

The Imam said he made many phone calls to police. “But they came very late. The troublemakers had fled by then… These boys had been drinking together.’’

Violence was at its worst around the chowk in Block 27 where a two-storey garment shop, owned by a Muslim, was burnt down. Ahead of the chowk, the road branches out into narrow lanes which go deep inside a slum where Muslim labour hands live with their families.
“For two days, we were under constant attack. People from Blocks 26, 21, 22 and 28 came and hurled stones and abuses,” Shamah Parveen who lives with her two children in a shack said. She believes it was a planned attack. “Everyone wants to remove us from here. They want to build houses here.”

In Block 15, some families locked themselves in. “The Metro station here has become a curse,’’ Mohammad Hussain said. “Everybody thinks that real estate prices will soar once the Metro comes. The station is right in front of Block 15. There are people who want to empty this sector before everything appreciates,” he said.

But he doesn’t believe that’s the only reason for the violence. “Politicians are trying to create a wedge between communities because polls are due,’’ he said.